Before and after practice, he mingles with his players, cracking light-hearted jokes and dispensing life advice to his players. From the upper stands of Memorial Stadium, you could mistake him for a positional coach, who generally has more personal connections with the players.

“You feel like you’re talking to a teammate,” guard Jordan Rigsbee said. “He’s the kind of guy that’s gonna go through the hard times with you.”

Over the past five months, Dykes, the new coach of the Cal football team, made himself at home in Berkeley. After a divorce between the program and former coach Jeff Tedford this winter, he’s the new hope to rejuvenate the decrepit program marred by a 3-9 record last year.

With his debut just three months away, the carte blanche earns him the benefit of the doubt. In the midst of offseason limbo, he has nothing to hide.

Dykes, speaking softly in slightly masked Texan drawl, has big plans as the new boss of Memorial Stadium. The plans are grandiose and idealistic, but his idealism sometimes borders on quixotic.

Dykes envisions a Cal football team that will uphold themselves to high moral and ethical  standards. As college football, already a billion-dollar business, expands its revenues further, Dykes wants Cal to be the forerunner that fights against the increasingly pervasive mindset of the football-first student-athlete.

“My job is to win football games, but it’s much more than that,” Dykes says. “I certainly wouldn’t feel like I accomplished much if our players didn’t do well and they weren’t integrated into being college students.

“It would feel pretty empty winning.”

In the towns of west Texas, the surname Dykes is a famous football surname. Older football fans remember Spike Dykes, Sonny’s father, as the legendary high school coach who stood on the sidelines on Friday nights from the ’60s to the ’80s.

From 1986 to 1999, Spike moved on to coach Texas Tech in Lubbock, where his son Sonny played baseball.

Spike is a remnant of a bygone era in college football, when the sport was still more localized and national revenue was less lucrative.

“(Our family) didn’t have a lot of money,” Spike says. “But we always really had a good laugh.”

Sonny grew up under the spotlight of his father. As his father created a familial environment for his teams, Sonny wants to bring the same atmosphere to Cal.

“I’ve had the best parents anyone can ever ask for,” Sonny says. “It’s my job to create a family environment for my players.”

Dykes at Berkeley seems out of place. In the urban Bay Area, the emphasis on family and community is more opaque than in the rural west Texan towns.

The money-grabbing in college football is exponentially increasing, and Cal is no exception to it. The Pac-12’s television contract with major networks totals $3 billion over 12 years. Memorial Stadium just had a $321 million facelift.

The old, traditional values associated with Spike Dykes’ time feel buried under the mountains of money. His son can’t contain his disdain for the skyrocketing profits that comes from college sports.

“College athletics is not a business,” Sonny says. “That’s not why it started. Our responsibilities are to enrich the players’ lives and teach them other things aside from block-and-tackle.”

But Dykes is not at war with the reality of lucrative business of college business. He accepts it. At age 43, Dykes signed a contract worth up to $9.8 million to be the 33rd head coach at Cal.

If Father Time had his way, Dykes might best fit coaching a high school worthy of a “Friday Night Lights” episode — much like his father. There, he would preach his message of personal enrichment and influence the lives of his players on and off the field.

But Dykes is not a high school football coach. Dykes is in charge at Cal. Already, he’s taking his first steps to redefine what Cal football will mean for the future.

“It’s just more than playing football,” Dykes says.

Dykes pauses midsentence for several seconds. He’s deep in thought, carefully constructing how he will answer a question about the importance of academic achievement.

Last year, Tedford faced scrutiny after a report came out showing only 47 percent of football players from 2002-5 graduated. Some say that was the coup de grace for Tedford’s firing.

He rambles on about how his performance will be judged on wins and losses, until he cuts himself off. Winning games is crucial, but he hopes to be gauged on a different metric outside the football field.

“From an ethical standpoint, (graduating my players) needs to be the primary focus,” Dykes says. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for (the 47 percent graduation rate). I understand how important it is to get fixed.”

And Dykes already set himself a high goal in terms of graduating his players. He says he  will make sure that every single senior in the program will graduate from Cal by this year.

His emphasis of positive feedback and shared accountability in the team has helped so far. In the locker room, there’s a Player of the Week award projecting on the walls for academic excellence. The special passes to miss classes are now almost nonexistent.

“We are talking more ownership,” linebacker Nick Forbes says. “It’s a lot of the brotherhood picking (each other) up.”

During his three-year stint as Louisiana Tech’s head coach, Dykes had success in improving graduation rates, posting a program-high 76 percent graduation rate.

Dykes held a short leash on players who didn’t focus on academics. In 2011, Dykes had five transfer players from the SEC, but when their academics took a backseat, Dykes canned all five.

“He got the ball rolling,” says Brad Herman, Louisiana Tech football’s academic counselor. “He turned the system from not being organized to being organized.”

Dykes is preparing his players for a life outside of football in campus as well. He wants the team to engage with the community like a big school club.

He has rallied his team to support other Cal sports teams in person and to volunteer, from running a workshop on Cal Day to working in San Quentin prison.

But Dykes sees the progress as a constructive, multiyear process. First, he plans to break down the jock mentality prevalent in student-athletes.

“It’s going to be a constant battle,” Dykes says.

For many players, it’s already a constant battle balancing academic rigors at Berkeley with athletic demands. From 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., most players are in class or practice, leaving them exhausted by the day’s end.

So how much more responsibility can the players take before they succumb to the demand?

“You got to know that 95 percent of the time, the athletes are simply tired,” Forbes said. “(However), it’s building a connective community. I think it’s great.”

On Dec. 19, 13 days after he was hired, Dykes revealed that he was going to hold open practices in a get-to-know-you pizza party with the Cal beat writers.

“Open the gates,” Dykes said at the time. “Come on in. We don’t have any secrets.”

Both open practices and pizza parties with the journalists would have been impossible to fathom when Tedford was still the coach. Tedford kept everyone outside the program at an arm’s length. As his program declined, so did the accessibility.

Dykes’ openness of the program to the public has been a refreshing change welcomed by many. But Dykes insists this is not a reaction to distance himself away from Tedford.

“If you look at my approach in Louisiana Tech and places I have been in the past, I have been that way,” Dykes says. “I don’t see why it can’t work here.”

Inheriting a 3-9 season in a brand-new stadium with poor sales record, Dykes has a brand to sell. Tedford sold his brand through the number of NFL players produced. Dykes is trying to sell it through the kind of accessibility and warmth you would expect when you enter a family home in west Texas.

Frankness and openness builds trust and likability. The trust and likability hopefully will bring Cal better recruits and sell more tickets.

“The more people know of our program, the more comfortable they will be with us,” Dykes says. “Access is deserved by the people.”

Perhaps there is something scheming when Dykes strolls through campus or eats lunch at La Val’s pizzeria. He’s the new kid in class, and he wants to be liked by the students. He wants to sell football tickets, too. Constant exposure might persuade some to come to Memorial Stadium come August.

If that is the case, then Dykes shows no signs of forcing the act in. His laid-back persona always maintains its cool.

Dykes wants his football team to accommodate every student and members in the Cal community. He envisions the entire campus being a part of the Cal football family.

“This is your team —  this is Cal’s team,” Dykes says. “We certainly don’t have anything to hide.”

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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Dykes, who signed the contract on Feb. 7, will receive an annual base salary of $250,000 a year with a talent fee for media obligations. The terms also include additional bonuses for on-field and academic performances.

“Sonny Dykes is the right person to lead our football program,” Cal Athletics Director Sandy Barbour said. “I’m pleased to say that we have concluded this process, so we can focus on ‘winning everywhere’ in our football program.”

Bonuses pertaining to academic performance include Dykes earning $10,000 to $23,000 when the total team GPA ranges from 2.7 to 3.0 and when the team’s Academic Progress Rate ranges between 960 to 980. Last year, Cal’s APR score slipped to 936.

For on-field bonuses, Dykes will receive escalating bonuses if the team wins more than seven games.

The contract also includes a one-time lump sum of $594,000, which was paid to Dykes on Feb. 15. The bonus is approximately the amount Dykes was required to pay for exiting his previous job as the head coach of Louisiana Tech.

If Dykes is fired by the university before the end of 2013, he will receive $3.75 million. In the subsequent years, that figure will be reduced by $750,000 per year until 2016.

If Dykes leaves the university voluntarily before 2013, he is required to pay $3 million. This figure will reduce in subsequent years.

The financial support for Dykes’ contract is provided by the self-generated revenue of the Cal Athletics Department.

Contact Michael Rosen at mrosen@dailycal.org.

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This $5.5 million will be divided into yearly sums until the length of Tedford’s original contract runs out in April 2015, assuming Tedford remains unemployed.

If Tedford does find employment, Cal’s obligation to pay Tedford is a different story. If Tedford earns more than $1.5 million per year at his hypothetical new job, the university doesn’t have to pay for 50 percent of whatever Tedford makes above that figure.

This differs from the original contract, in which the university would have been relieved from the entirety of Tedford’s yearly contract with no $1.5 million cutoff.

Michael Rosen is the assistant sports editor. Contact him at mrosen@dailycal.org.

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Taking over the Cal football team on Dec. 5, Dykes zeroed in on fixing three of the Bears’ most dire concerns: the offensive line, defensive line and academics. Of the 25 recruits who signed their letters of intent to Cal, five were offensive linemen and eight were defensive lineman.

“The first thing I noticed is that we needed to build depth on our offensive and defensive lines,” Dykes said in his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday. “(It’s) going to determine the success of our program.”

Cal’s performance in the trenches on both sides of the ball was lackluster in 2012. The Bears were ranked 118th in the nation in sacks allowed last year, with 40. On the defensive side of the ball, Cal sacked the opposing quarterback only 25 times — tied for 59th in the nation.

In his press conference, Dykes also honed in on academics. A glaring concern for the Bears, which ultimately played a role in Tedford’s firing, was their graduation rate of 47 percent among players who enrolled between 2002 and 2005. It was the worst in the Pac-12.

“Our student-athletes need to be equipped to deal with the competitive atmosphere in the classroom,” Dykes said. “We’ve got to represent this institution the right way with this football program.”

Dykes pointed to three in particular who he believes will receive early playing time: cornerback Cameron Walker, wide receiver Jack Austin and running back Khalfani Muhammad.

Walker is a solid open field tackler who possesses good closing speed. Austin is regarded as a good route runner, which will help him transition to the college game. His 6-foot-3 height also enables him to make tough catches over defenders.

Dykes believes Muhammad gives the Cal offense an added explosive threat. In addition to starring in football at Notre Dame High School, Muhammad was the Californian state champion in the 100- and 200-meter races.

“(Muhammad) gets going … fast,” Dykes said regarding the Sherman Oaks, Calif., running back. “He had about a 20-minute highlight reel.”

Moving forward, Dykes acknowledged the fast pace of the spring season, which is something that he’s looking forward to. The next two weeks will be used as an “evaluation period,” and when spring ball commences, Dykes will get a better idea about the football team he has assembled.

“We weren’t trying to win any kind of Signing Day accolades,” Dykes said.

“The best thing about this class is that we signed a football team.”

Contact Sean Wagner-McGough at swagnermcgough@dailycal.org.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about the ethics of recruiting in the news, in particular how coaches ought to interact with recruits.

With the continued permeation of social media into the lives of high school recruits, the question needs to be addressed: How much should coaches be able to contact recruits via social media, especially on Facebook and Twitter?

It’s a tricky question. On the player side of things, nobody wants to constantly be bombarded with text messages and tweets from drooling position coaches.

It sucks for the families, and it sucks for the kids.

Ideally, this would be an easily fixable solution: Ban coaches from tweeting or texting players, and let that be that.

Only one problem: How are you going to enforce it?

I’ll give you a second to think about it.

OK, that’s what I thought.

In an ideal world, one could restrict these coaches from incessantly hounding recruits, but Twitter’s wings spread too wide, and Facebook’s privacy settings are simply too impenetrable.

How will the NCAA know if Sonny Dykes sends Jared Goff a private message on Facebook? If the recruits are complicit, and the coaches are complicit, it’s nearly impossible.

And it’s not like college football coaches exactly prize morality. They’re homicidally competitive and job-obsessed, stopping at nothing to gain even the slightest of advantages.

Even if the NCAA imposed the strictest possible sanctions, coaches would find a way around them. We’ve seen it over and over. Ohio State, USC, Oregon — and who knows how many more.

It’s inevitable that coaches will tweet and Facebook recruits; the NCAA is a powerless entity and is best staying completely out of the equation.

A better idea, I submit, is involving those who actually have a tangible and real effect on both the behavior of coaches and recruits — the parents.

If the coaches and parents of each individual conversed about tweeting and Facebooking limits, creating an acceptable line that the coaches could approach in terms of social media interactions, actual progress could be made.

The coaches cross the established and agreed-upon line, and the parents intervene.

The coaches suffer actual consequences and face the fear of parental influence instead of the effectively invisible and impotent hand of the NCAA.

It’s an unfortunate problem that gets worse every single year that Twitter and Facebook gain influence. But the NCAA is kidding itself if it believes it can actually make a difference.

The whole ordeal feels like it should have a simple solution; nobody on either side of the coin wants to deal with the burdensome and obnoxious consequences of a full-scale invasion into the daily life of high school kids.

But as long as the NCAA halfheartedly throws regulations at colleges, coaches won’t change their behavior. Paradoxically, or perhaps ironically, only when the NCAA ceases to impose regulations on social media interactions will actual progress commence in earnest.

— Michael Rosen

AGAINST:

Last February, I interviewed former head coach Jeff Tedford for the National Signing Day press conference, and the biggest impression I took away that day was that Tedford was outdated and overwhelmed in the new age of recruiting.

I resented Tedford for being unable to adapt to modern times. He had little to no idea how to work Facebook or Twitter. He relied on Tosh Lupoi to do the heavy lifting in keeping in touch with the kids, and once Lupoi bolted to Washington, all the five-star recruits committed to Cal decommitted.

Instead of falling behind the rest of college football by being a straight arrow of the old-school way, sometimes I felt one needs to cut corners to get ahead in this dog-eat-dog world of college football recruiting.

Now, I am one year older — hopefully one year wiser as well. And my opinion on the current state of college football recruiting has veered far away from my opinions of yesteryear.

When I read my colleague Jordan Bach-Lombardo’s column that the NCAA had “eliminated the restrictions of methods of communication with recruits” and removed “the limit on the number of coaches who can recruit off campus at any one time,” I was irate.

What the NCAA needs is not fewer regulations against recruiters — it needs more. It needs to tighten college football programs’ recruiting tactics of harassing and pressuring high school recruits to making a decision they don’t want to make.

In rebuttal, the coaches and recruiters will likely say that the decision of what school the recruit will attend ultimately lies with the recruit himself. That’s a simple way of looking at it. The incessant texting and tweeting at the recruits by coaches muddle the recruit’s priorities and mislead him to make a short-term decision that doesn’t pay off for the recruit in the future.

It is ultimately not the recruit who is donning the hat of the school of his choice in front of the televisions; many times, it’s the silver-tongued recruiter or booster who got to the recruit’s head the fastest, making arguably the biggest decision of the recruit’s teenage life.

The NCAA first needs to retract its decision to streamline recruiting methods. From there, the NCAA should tighten the restrictions by, say, creating an independent committee that can police the recruiters to lighten the pressure on the recruits.

A committee that polices the recruiters’ activities can also help nip in the bud for the pervasive problem of improper benefits, which the NCAA tried to solve by handing out massive punishments to the guilty programs.

Unfortunately, that’s about the best remedy I can offer to college football’s hidden tumor. I agree that the proposal is vague and idealistic. Perhaps it’s me looking at the issue the simple way.

But something needs to be done. The NCAA needs to tighten its belt, not throw it into the trash bin.

For now, the NCAA sided with the latter — to go hands-off and let things play out on their own. As I wait for the consequences of the decision, I am left asking the same question Tedford brought up in the press conference:

“When do these kids have a chance to go to school and be a kid?”

— Seung Y. Lee

The post Thumb Wars: Should the NCAA deregulate high school football recruiting? appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Status: Enrolled
High School: Marin Catholic
Position: QB

Cal has been in a quarterback funk since Aaron Rodgers left Berkeley in 2004. So Sonny Dykes is certainly hoping that newly signed quarterback Jared Goff is the man to lead his high-profile Air Raid offense.

Hailing from Kentfield, Calif., Goff attended Marin Catholic High School where he threw for over 7,000 yards in his career.  Goff ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation among quarterbacks in the 2013 recruiting class.

In his three years as a starter in a pass-heavy offense, Goff compiled a 39-4 record and an appearance in the 2012 state championship game.

This past season, Goff completed 64 percent of his passes while throwing 40 touchdown passes. He will begin practicing with the team this spring.

Goff will be competing against highly touted redshirt freshman Zach Kline and redshirt senior Allan Bridgford. With Zach Maynard’s departure, Cal’s starting quarterback job is up for grabs.
­

— Sean Wagner-McGough

Khalfani Muhammad

Status: Soft recruit
HS: Notre Dame
Position: RB

Khalfani Muhammad might just be the next Brandon Bigelow. Muhammad, a 5-foot-9 running back out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., is the California state champion in both the 100 and 200-meter dash. Muhammad’s sprinting prowess bears a close resemblance to Bigelow, who once claimed he beat DeAnthony Thomas in a track race.

Muhammad is much more than just a speedster, though. Watching his junior year highlight film, one can see that Muhammad possesses excellent cutback ability and field vision, looking much more like a polished and seasoned college running back than a 16-year old.

He also consistently runs over linebackers and defensive backs, showing that his slight frame doesn’t restrict his ability to run with power. If Muhammad is as good as his highlight tape indicates, he may be yet another great Cal running back, and the first in a post-Gould era.

— Michael Rosen

Darius  Allensworth

Status: Solid recruit
HS: Heritage
Position: CB

Despite a change in its coaching staff, Cal is poised to retain a key four-star recruit in Darius Allensworth.

Allensworth was heavily courted by a plethora of schools, racking up ten scholarship offers.

However, the 5-foot-11 cornerback from Romoland, Calif., recently told Scout.com that his committment to Cal was a 10, on a 1-10 scale.

That’s good news for head coach Sonny Dykes and defensive coordinator Andy Buh, as the highly athletic Allensworth is expected to play as a cornerback. His numbers took a dip his senior season, during which he caught only 14 passes for 159 yards and two scores as a receiver. On the defensive side of the ball Allensworth recorded three interceptions.

The Bears are certainly hoping Allensworth can help improve a defensive unit that gave up almost 31 points per game in 2012.

— Sean Wagner-McGough

Matt Anderson

Status: Enrolled
HS: San Ramon Valley
Position: K

When a kicker like Matt Anderson comes around, there are reasons to be excited.

The San Ramon Valley high school kicker, who was teammates with quarterback Zach Kline, is considered one of the best kickers in the country. Yahoo! Sports rates Anderson as the fifth-best kicker in the class of 2013.

When Anderson came to Witter Field last June to show his talents to former head coach Jeff Tedford, he performed better than kickers Michael Geiger and Daniel Carlson — two of the four recruits rated higher than Anderson. A few hours later, former head coach Jeff Tedford offered Anderson a full scholarship to Cal. One of the three recruits already enrolled at Berkeley, Anderson shows great promise. At Witter Field, he knocked down a 58-yard field goal. Anderson should be able to give starting kicker Vince D’Amato a run for his money.

— Seung Y. Lee

Cameron Walker

Status: Soft recruit
HS: Loyola
Position: CB

Cameron Walker is not someone that wows you immediately from the stat sheet. Physically, Walker, who played cornerback at Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Calif., stands at 5-foot-11 and weighs 180 pounds, which is possibly the most generic height-weight ratio for a cornerback. His 40-meter time clocks in at 4.51 seconds, which isn’t barnburner speed that separates him from the rest.

Then what makes Walker a three-star recruit who was offered scholarships by 11 schools, including Boise State, Michigan and Stanford? What he lacks in physical talent, Walker makes up in his hard-nosed play of style and technical abilities.

ESPN believes Walker is a “productive playmaker” in the secondary and even a sleeper in the recruiting boards. There’s nothing that can beat a cornerback with sound fundamentals.

— Seung Y. Lee

Aaron Cochran

Status: Solid recruit
HS: Buhach
Position: OL

A year after allowing 41 sacks — more than all but five FBS schools — Cal’s offensive line is in need of an instant upgrade. Three-star recruit Aaron Cochran will get his chance to show he can be a part of an offensive line in dire need of durable players. The Atwater, Calif., recruit joins his brother Matt on the Bears’ offensive line, choosing Cal over schools such as Oklahoma, Nebraska and Arizona. At 6-foot-8 and 350 pounds, Cochran will be the largest player on Cal’s roster — 10 pounds heavier than freshman counterpart Freddie Tagaloa. But on an injury-plagued offensive line, the most important factor could be Cochran’s durability.

After tweeting “I think my foot’s fractured,” on Jan. 23, the Twitter-happy lineman posted on Sunday, “Being injured reminds me that I’m not invincible.” The Bears won’t need Cochran to be invincible — just durable enough to make it through his four years at Cal relatively injury-free.

— Chris Yoder

Takkarist McKinley

Status: Soft recruit
HS: John F. Kennedy
Position: DE

At 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, three-star recruit Takkarist McKinley is a bit undersized for a Division I defensive end. But McKinley has track-star speed that has drawn comparisons to three-time Pro Bowler Jevon Kearse.

A two-sport star at John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, Calif., McKinley put up seven sub-11 times in the 100 meters, including a blistering 10.58 in the state qualifying meet. Though McKinley won’t be the strongest member of Cal’s defensive line, he does have the speed and agility to make an immediate impact on a line that ranked ninth in the Pac-12 last year at rush defense.

There’s no guarantee that McKinley follows Kearse’s career path, and it’s possible that McKinley will shift to linebacker, where he would be more able to use his speed in the open field. It will be up to Cal’s new coaching staff to decide where McKinley’s athleticism will be utilized best.

— Chris Yoder

Drake Whitehurst

Status: Enrolled
HS: City College of SF
Position: WR

You may have never heard of Drake Whitehurst, but once he steps onto the football field, it’s impossible not to spot him.

The wide receiver Whitehurst is a physical specimen, standing at 6-foot-6 and weighing 215 pounds. The two-star recruit from the City College of San Francisco adds an additional dimension to the already stacked wide receiver corps.  Unlike Bryce Treggs and Chris Harper, the more well-rounded receivers, Whitehurst is more of an one-trick pony, blessed and cursed by his size.

Whitehurst will be a welcomed red-zone target thanks to his enormous size and physicality. His size also makes him naturally adept at blocking downfield for the running game. But he doesn’t have great speed or acceleration — don’t expect him to zip past his cornerback.

Considering his size, usefulness and the local connection, Whitehurst will be a low-risk, relatively high-reward recruit for the Bears.

— Seung Y. Lee

Contact Daily Cal sports at sports@dailycal.org

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In with the new, out with the old.

It seems new Cal football coach Sonny Dykes took that adage in stride when he was putting together his coaching staff. All coaches who worked under Jeff Tedford last year are gone, and nine coaches have come to fill their spots to join Dykes’ cabinet.

It’s rare to see so many changes happen in such a short span of time. But it can also create unfamiliarity for a lot of fans.

That’s why Daily Cal Sports chose to take this time to get to know a little more about the newcomers. Let’s meet the coaches.

— Seung Y. Lee

Sonny Dykes, Head Coach: 

None of the new coaches listed below would be at Cal without the initial arrival of the head coach, Sonny Dykes. When he was hired on Dec. 5, the former Louisiana Tech coach promised a prompt completion of his coaching staff.

Dykes brought in an entirely new set of coaches. He  was adamant that Cal football be scrapped and molded into an entirely new model to his liking.

Despite both Tedford and Dykes being heralded as offensive masterminds when they arrived at Berkeley, the two couldn’t be any more different. Tedford was a guru of the pro-style offense; Dykes was an innovator of the ever-growing Air Raid offense.

Dykes’ offensive system, developed by his mentors Hal Mumme and Mike Leach at Kentucky and Texas Tech, respectively, relies on fast tempo and unconventional schemes. Combining a hurry-up with an extremely pass-heavy offense, Dykes’ system aims at exhausting and disorienting the opponents.

The prolific Louisiana Tech offense that Dykes coached from 2009 to 2011 relied on a diamond formation — involving two fullbacks and one halfback — that uses unorthodox running routes to exploit the defensive holes created in the frenzy of the hurry-up offense.

The staggering numbers that the Bulldogs produced last season spoke to the efficiency and the explosiveness of Dykes’ Air Raid offense. Louisiana Tech, who finished the season with a 9-3 record, was first in the nation in total yards per game and total points per game. Quarterback Colby Cameron finished his senior season with 4,157 yards, 31 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

The most noticeable aspect of Dykes’ success in Ruston, La. was his ability to develop recruits that were overlooked by bigger programs. Cameron was a two-star recruit when he entered Louisiana Tech. Running back Kenneth Dixon and wide receiver Quinton Patton, who posted video game-like statistics, were both three-star recruits.

In that respect, Dykes is the opposite of Tedford. Tedford raked in many five-star recruits who failed to reach their ceiling. Dykes created stat-bloating monsters with much less-heralded players.

Dykes is doing everything to separate himself from Tedford. Unlike the stoic and secretive Tedford, he’s holding open practices to the media. Dykes chose to live close to Memorial Stadium so that his family can visit him during work. Tedford was famous for regularly sleeping in his office, far away from his family, who lived in Danville.

In raw potential, Dykes has a lot of material to work with to leave his mark at Berkeley. Considering the systematic overhaul, Dykes’ project might take a lot of time.

There’s as much risk as there is reward for having an unconventional coach like Dykes at the helm. But one way or the other, it’s going to be so much fun to watch.

— Seung Y. Lee

Tony Franklin, Offensive Coordinator: 

Somehow, someway, Tony Franklin is now an offensive coordinator at a Pac-12 school.

Franklin, disciple of Mike Leach and Hal Mumme, is heralded nowadays as somewhat of an offensive mastermind — the archetypal mad genius. He served as Dykes’ offensive coordinator last year at Louisiana Tech. That sentence likely seemed unfathomable to Franklin just a decade ago.

After blowing the whistle on recruiting violations as an assistant coach at Kentucky, Franklin found himself blackballed by the college football establishment. He wrote a book called “Fourth Down and Life to Go,” detailing the gory details of the cheating existing behind the scenes at Kentucky. Such a public admission symbolized an effective resignation from the larger football establishment.

“In this profession, you’re much better known to be a cheater than you would be to be a rat, I’ll say that. I think cheaters can get jobs a whole lot easier than a guy that’s perceived to be a rat or a mole,” Franklin said in an interview with Outside The Lines.

Outside that establishment Franklin remained for almost six years. He slogged in the high school ranks, selling his Air Raid derivative “Tony Franklin system” to high school coaches attempting to forge a unique path in opposition to the traditional run-first offenses prevalent in the southern United States.

By 2006, word spread of the effectiveness of Franklin’s “System,” and Troy decided to hire Franklin after finishing last in the Sun Belt Conference in offense. Franklin immediately transitioned Troy into an offensive juggernaut, bringing it from 109th nationally in total offense to 16th. The Trojans subsequently won back-to-back league titles, and Franklin had his reputation back firmly in place.

Brief stints at Auburn and Middle Tennessee State eventually led to a linkup with Dykes at Louisiana Tech. The two came to know each other during their time at Kentucky, learning the Air Raid under Mumme. Conflating their offensive philosophies at Louisiana Tech, the pair turned a lackluster program into the nation’s best offense in three years.

The Air Raid offense at its core is a fast-paced, no-huddle, pass-happy barrage. The Mesh route concept fuels its success, running two receivers on crossing routes underneath to set up a legal pick and throwing two receivers downfield and in the flats to spread the defense.

Franklin and Dykes added wrinkles to their own Air Raid, running a 50-50 spread of run and pass, unheard of previously in Air Raid reincarnations.

With the athletes Franklin will have at his disposal at Cal, the offense may evolve to forms unseen in college football.

— Michael Rosen

Rob Likens, Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers Coach:

Adjusting to a new offensive scheme isn’t always a smooth transition, so Rob Likens looks to  play an invaluable role in helping Cal’s wide receivers make a smooth transition into Sonny Dykes’ system.

Recently hired as assistant head coach and the wide receivers coach, Likens will build the corps without star Keenan Allen. He will work closely with sophomore receivers Chris Harper and Bryce Treggs.

After losing Allen to the NFL draft, Cal’s wide receivers will rely heavily on Harper, who was one of the few bright spots in the disappointing 2012 campaign. Harper was the only consistent threat through the air behind Allen — statistically, he finished second in yards, receptions and touchdowns.

Likens coached with Dykes at Louisiana Tech, helping direct an offensive unit that ranked first in scoring in all of college football last season. The Bulldogs featured the fourth-best passing attack in the country, widely due to great wide receiver play.

As assistant head coach and wide receivers coach at Ruston, La., Likens developed star wideout Quinton Patton. Patton finished the 2012 season ranked fourth in receiving yards per game (116 ypg) and receptions per game (8.67). He was also tied for 5th for touchdown catches in the season (13). By the end of the year, Likens’ receivers compiled well over 4,000 yards.

Likens’ first year at Louisiana Tech, 2010, was marked by a drastic improvement in the team’s passing attack. In 2009, the Bulldogs were ranked 91st in passing offense, a ranking that rose to 62nd by the end of 2010.

Prior to coaching at Louisiana Tech, Likens’ held offensive coaching positions at Central Connecticut State, Southeast Missouri State, Temple and North Alabama.

As the Bears look to install a new offense, Dykes will be counting on Likens to bring out the full potential in Harper and company.

— Sean Wagner-McGough

Pierre Ingram, Running Backs Coach: 

The third of Sonny Dykes’ hires in this new era of Cal football, Pierre Ingram already knows a thing or two about the head honcho’s style of play. That’s because Ingram blossomed into Louisiana Tech’s running backs coach under Dykes throughout the last three seasons.

There, the ground game accumulated more than 1,900 yards in the 2011 campaign.

Now, as one of the many coaches to transfer alongside Dykes to Cal, Ingram is ready to amp up the Bears’ potential on the ground. The key, he says, is simple: Brendan Bigelow. Exhibit A in 2012 was, of course, the game at Ohio State, in which Bigelow had four carries for 160 yards.

“You turn that on, watch those first couple plays, and as a coach, you can turn the tape off after that,” Ingram said in an interview shortly after being named running backs coach. “The kid has it.”

Hallelujah.

— Annie Gerlach

Zach Yenser, Offensive Line Coach: 

The end was in sight for Sonny Dykes by the time he hired Zach Yenser. Despite joining the likes of Ingram and Likens as one of the many coaches to follow Dykes from Louisiana Tech to Cal, Yesner is the only one to receive a title upgrade.

With the Bulldogs he was a graduate assistant to Pete Perot on the offensive line. Starting now, Yenser will be the one calling the shots for the Bears’ offensive line.

Stepping out from someone else’s shadow, Yenser will certainly spend the 2013 season beefing up his profile and showing what he’s capable of. He will also have to contend with what might have been the most glaring problem for the Bears last season: the offensive line. Cal’s line gave up an abysmal 41 sacks for 270 yards last year — good for second-most in the entire FBS.

Fortunately, Yenser has a familiar face to look up to — he’s literally followed offensive coordinator Tony Franklin for years. He played under Franklin at Troy in the 2006 season and was a GA in 2007.

— Annie Gerlach

Mark Tommerdahl, Special Teams Coordinator/Inside Receivers Coach:

Cal’s special teams in 2012 were bad. Under the direction of Jeff Genyk, the Bears ranked 83rd in the nation in allowing more than nine yards per punt return, while ranking 90th in average punt length at just under 40.

Cal’s kickoff stats were equally disappointing, as the squad always seemed to be on the wrong side of the field position battle.

Enter Mark Tommerdahl, who brings nearly 30 years of coaching experience to a team that desperately needs to shore up its special teams play.

Last year at Louisiana Tech, Tommerdahl’s special teams unit ranked first in the nation in net yards per punt at just more than 48 per kick. It was those kind of numbers that had punter Ryan Allen win the Ray Guy Award for the second year in a row.

In addition to heading the special teams effort, Tommerdahl will also be in charge of the inside receivers.

— Connor Byrne

The defensive coaches will be continued in Meet the coaches, part 2. 

Contact Daily Cal Sports at sports@dailycal.org.

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Andy Buh, Defensive Coordinator/ Linebackers Coach:

While newly appointed head coach Sonny Dykes was hired primarily for his offensive prowess, his defensive unit at Louisiana Tech was ranked dead-last in college football in 2012. Meanwhile, Cal’s defense had its struggles as well, giving up almost 31 points per game last season.

Therefore, Dykes’ most important hire to his newly completed staff arguably was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Andy Buh, who will be tasked with shoring up the Bears’ defense to slow down the likes of Oregon and USC.

Buh — pronounced Boo — comes to Berkeley fresh off a trip to the Rose Bowl as he served as the linebackers coach for a Wisconsin team that fell to Stanford.

He’ll have another opportunity to solve Stanford’s pro-style offense — this time in the Big Game.

At Wisconsin, Buh played a key role in molding a Wisconsin defense that ranked 13th nationally in total defense.

This won’t be the first time he has served as a defensive coordinator, as Buh held the same position at Nevada for two seasons.

Buh was able to take a Nevada defense that ranked 91st overall in 2009 and transform it into a unit that ranked 54th in 2010 and 52nd in 2011.

Under Buh, Cal’s defense will not be expected to rely on gimmicks and confusion. Instead, look for Buh’s unit to be fundamentally sound in their technique and tackling.

Previously, Buh also held assistant defensive positions at Stanford, San Diego State, Fresno State and at Cal as a defensive administrative assistant from 2000 to 2001.

While the offseason hype will be directed toward the offense, Buh’s defense will a play a crucial role in putting Cal football back on the map.

— Sean Wagner-McGough

Barry Sacks, Defensive Line Coach:

The name would seem to fit the job description. Barry Sacks is Cal’s new defensive line coach, tasked with reviving a once fearsome unit that struggled in 2012.

Cal’s defense, which ranked second and third conference wide in sacks in 2010 and 2011, respectively, plummeted to the bottom half of the Pac-12 last season. The squad allowed about 130 rushing yards per game both in 2010 and 2011 but gave up nearly 170 a contest during this past 3-9 campaign.

In comes Sacks. He spent the last 11 years at Nevada — the past 10 coaching the defensive line — where he helped the Wolfpack reach eight consecutive bowl games.

Nevada’s defensive numbers, however, are a bit worrisome. The Wolfpack play an uptempo offense, so naturally defensive statistics would increase some. But the club gave up 212 rushing yards a game last season, the second-to-worst mark in the Mountain West.

— Jonathan Kuperberg

Garret Chacere, Defensive End Coach:

Of all the new hires, the hiring of Garret Chacere — pronounced Sash-er-RAY — as the defensive ends coach was the oddest hire of them all for mainly two reasons.

First, the defensive ends coach is a new coaching title. There was no such thing under Tedford. Second, Chacere has never coached defensive ends — in his 22-year coaching career, he has coached linebackers, wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, and defensive backs.

So why did Dykes bring in Chacere to Berkeley? Dykes had built a good relationship with Chacere when they worked together in the Northeast Louisiana and Arizona coaching staffs in 1998 and 2009, respectively.

To Dykes, Chacere was a jack-of-all-trades positional coach with a good recruiting record; at Tulane, he was responsible in recruiting current Chicago Bears running Matt Forte.

Expect Chacere’s main responsibilities to lie outside of the defensive end coaching position.

— Seung Y. Lee

Randy Stewart, Defensive Backs Coach:

Defensive backs coach Randy Stewart may sound like a familiar name. That’s because he’s been here before.

Stewart spent five years as a defensive backs coach for Cal from 1997-2001, where in 1999 he helped lead the best defense in the Pac-12 despite serving under former head coach Tom Holmoe.

From 2002 to 2011, he was a few hundred miles southeast of Cal at Fresno State, serving as a defensive coordinator for the final three years.

His most notable accomplishments include molding future Pro Bowl cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Deltha O’Neal while at Cal. Stewart will bring his developmental acumen to talented projects Kam Jackson and Stefan McClure.

Stewart is also known as a recruiting expert — part of his allure in the Dykes regime. As recently as 10 years ago, Stewart’s favorite movie was “Jaws”. Hopefully his defensive backs will have a killer instinct. Like sharks. Specifically in “Jaws.”

— Michael Rosen

Contact Daily Cal Sports at sports@dailycal.org.

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After the Big Game, it became woefully apparent that the Bears’ offensive gameplan was in dire need of comprehensive retooling. Now enter new Bears head coach Sonny Dykes.

“What’s exciting is our brand of football is fun,” Dykes said in Wednesday’s press conference. “I think that’s what’s going to be exciting for the football fans out there. We’re going to play at a fast pace, be able to move the football and score points.”

Dykes’ offense at Louisiana Tech last year led the country in points and finished second in yards per game. Its passing completion percentage ranked fifth in the country. Its running backs averaged 5.2 yards per carry, the 15th-most efficient running attack in Division I.

Dykes likes to run a formation with the quarterback in the shotgun and the running back lined up directly behind him. From there, he’ll either spread four receivers out and let the quarterback identify a mismatch or sit two fullbacks behind the center and hand off to the back for a power running play.

This radical approach to the attack provides a cure for Cal’s greatest flaw last year: an inconsistent and unreliable offense.

Tedford’s pro-style two-receiver sets excelled only after the run game established itself early in the contest, forcing the secondary to respect the play-action pass. Too many times, Cal fell behind early or couldn’t establish the run and failed to demonstrate any flexibility in reacting to opposing defensive schemes.

Dykes’ Air Raid offense makes it impossible for the opposition to lean too heavily on either the pass defense or the run defense. If the running attack stagnates early, the offense can just switch to a five-receiver set and start working the pass game.

“We’re constantly trying to make sure we’re going to have our five best offensive linemen playing at the same time,” Dykes said. “ If you have three centers who are your very best guys, we’re going to move some guys around, get our best five on the field.”

It’s a perfect fix to Tedford’s greatest problem of simply not having the offensive set to counter a menacing front seven, like Stanford’s, which dominates the trenches.

Granted, Dykes’ former teams weren’t without their flaws.

Louisiana Tech’s defense last year gave up too many points. It finished among the national leaders in penalty yards accumulated.

But these issues aren’t the head coach’s sole responsibility. With the hire of a solid defensive coordinator, Cal’s talented returning defensive starters should serve as a strength rather than a weakness.

And his offensive attack allows for a broad spectrum of possibilities.

Best case, Dykes will be Chip Kelly reincarnate. The Oregon coach has turned the Ducks into a national powerhouse behind the strength of his innovative spread option attack.

Worst case, Dykes’ offense will be gimmicky, and Pac-12 defenses will eat it alive.

What is sure is that it will be a drastic shift in the Bears’ identity. The pro-sets Cal fans have lived and died under for more than a decade have now officially been thrown out the window. The offense has officially transitioned to the 21st century.

Cal fans needed this. Last season was an exercise in torture — watching Tedford’s traditional style fail almost every single game left many begging for a change.

Athletic Director Sandy Barbour just bought a ticket for change with this coaching hire. The unanswered question here  is whether it will be for the good or the bad.

My bet’s on the former.

Michael Rosen covers football. Contact him at mrosen@dailycal.org.

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Call it the oncoming Bear raid. Or perhaps Air Bears.

With Sonny Dykes and the “air raid” offense coming to Cal, nicknames for the 2013 Bears’ offense have already been floated throughout the campus community and blogosphere.

“What’s exciting is our brand of football is fun,” said Dykes at Thursday’s press conference introducing him as the Cal football team’s new head coach. “I can’t really begin to say how special it is to stand here as head coach at Cal … It’s a dream come true.”

But the football program is a puzzle, and at the field club at Memorial Stadium, the talk was about how the hiring of Dykes fits the pieces together.

After firing Jeff Tedford on Nov. 20 following a 3-9 season, Athletics Director Sandy Barbour formed a search advisory committee that included student-athletes, football alumni, faculty members and other coaches. The group, which did not interview candidates or even mention names, came up with a consensus on the personal characteristics, values and experience the new coach should have.

Barbour said that Dykes — the Louisiana Tech head coach who, in three seasons, led the squad to a 22-15 record and a league title in 2011 — was whom they had in mind in that room on Nov. 26.

“You’ve read all the statistics, but until you meet the man and spend time with him and probe his values and hopes and dream … you don’t know what an incredible fit he is to lead the young men in this program,” Barbour said. “His win-everywhere mentality is ultimately what has brought coach Dykes to Berkeley.”

Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance John Wilton, who along with Chancellor Robert Birgeneau advised Barbour during the selection process, called Dykes the first choice. Barbour said she interviewed numerous candidates but kept coming back to Dykes after his initial interview.

“When he walked out of the room, I said to myself, ‘I think that’s the guy,’” Barbour said.

Dykes said there were a lot of viable coaching jobs available, but he was interested in Cal from the onset.

“Cal has a commitment to excellence,” he said, “a commitment to win every single day and in every single way.”

Dykes’ Louisiana Tech squad led the nation in scoring this past season. As a position coach and offensive coordinator from 2000-09, he helped transform Texas Tech and Arizona into offensive juggernauts with his explosive shotgun-based spread offense.

Dykes said success comes with putting the best players on the field, whether that is seven offensive linemen or five receivers. It is a simple offense, he said, one that is predicated on taking what the defense gives the team.

But for all his pedigree on the offensive end, Louisiana Tech ranked No. 119 in defense in 2012. Dykes said that hiring a defensive coordinator would be his most important hire.

“I’m gonna go get the best, bring him here and combine great defense with great offense with great special teams and try to go win a championship,” Dykes said.

Besides the Bears’ 3-9 season in 2012, the squad has the league’s worst graduation rate at 48 percent. Dykes said he believes there is a direct correlation to success in academics and athletics. That was a point of focus when he met with the team earlier in the day.

As for the next few weeks, Dykes will be off recruiting — both players and coaches. He hopes to have his staff mostly complete by Christmas, with as many as three or four hopefully hired by Monday. He plans to interview Cal assistants.

In recruiting athletes, he said getting the state of California is paramount to the program’s success.

For now, Barbour is glad that her search is over, and a whirlwind two days has ended for Dykes.

“We’ll look back at it all and say it was the best 48 hours of my life,” he said.

Jonathan Kuperberg covers football. Contact him at jkuperberg@dailycal.org

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